Heinrich Lunge
Inspector Heinrich Lunge (ハインリッヒ・ルンゲ) is an officer employed in the BKA. He lives for his work, and pridefully states that no case he ever has taken on has ended without a resolution. He possesses extremely high analytical abilities, and has an excellent memory. Biography Lunge first appears after the funeral of Udo Heinemann, since he has been assigned to investigate the murders of the director, Dr. Eisen, and Dr. Boyer. He meets with Dr. Kenzo Tenma and interrogates him, after which he hypothesizes that Tenma must be responsible for their deaths, since he is the only person who has something to gain, and also has a reasonable motive (having been demoted after performing surgery on Johan Liebert). Due to a lack of evidence, the case makes little progression for about ten years, but Lunge remains certain that Tenma is a murderer. Ten years later, he is investigating the serial killings of middle-aged couples, and concludes that a man by the name of Adolf Junkers is involved. Junkers is, however, hit by a car after barely escaping death by the hand of Johan. He receives treatment from Doctor Tenma, and Lunge impatiently waits to interrogate him. Still sure Tenma killed the three doctors ten years ago, he assigns a guard to watch over Junkers until he's ready to confess in order to make sure some 'unfortunate' accident doesn't occur. Around this time, Johan has caught up with him, and after finding his guard poisoned, Junkers runs out of the hospital. Tenma chases after him and they arrive at an abandoned building. There, Junkers is executed and Tenma meets adult Johan, who provides him explanation for the many deaths surrounding him. The following day, Tenma gives his testimony to Lunge, but his story is highly unbelievable and only supports the fact that he is insane. Lunge theorizes that Johan Liebert is a fabrication of Tenma's mind, suggesting he has dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder); the kind, loving doctor and the vicious killer must be one and the same. Around this time, he is also working on another case, but pushes too far and an important suspect commits suicide. As a result, his superiors tell him he needs to take some time off and clear his head; he is then removed from all cases. Later, he goes home to find that his wife and daughter are leaving him. Their claim is that he is so fixated on his work, that he didn't even notice his wife was having an affair, or that his daughter had become pregnant. At this point, Lunge is now alone and has nothing to work on, but decides to take this opportunity to start pursuing Tenma full time. Tenma now has left to go hunting for monsters, and has found himself on the wanted list as a suspect for murder. The two enter a game of cat-and-mouse, and come into contact a few times, but Tenma always escapes. At one point, he even saves Lunge's life, who was going to die of blood loss due to a stab wound he received from a paranoid murderer whose actions implicated he was just begging to be caught. After arriving in Munich and investigating the young man attending university known as Johan Liebert, he begins to suspect that perhaps his calculations were wrong and that Johan really is a real person. After going through Moravia Publishing Company's archives where he finds sketches of the twins drawn by Franz Bonaparta, he becomes certain of his error. After Tenma is captured with the help of Tomas Zobak, he whispers to him in the police station that the hardest people to interrogate are the ones who say nothing at all, signifying the fact that he now believes in Tenma's claim. After Tenma escapes from prison, he begins investigating the mysterious Franz Bonaparta. He receives a painting of the place he lives in from Bonaparta's son, Jaromír Lipsky, and tours southern Germany until coming across the town of Ruhenheim, which matches the artwork. There, he works with Wolfgang Grimmer to help stop the massacre on the verge of breaking the ice, but is unable to in time, and the town goes plunging into the depths of hell. He and Grimmer part ways, and promise that after the incident is over they'll go out for beer. Lunge runs into Tenma, and tells him he's sorry, because he now knows he really was telling the truth the whole time. Following that, he confronts Roberto in the Hotel Bergbach, and receives some near fatal injuries, but gives out just as many in return. Roberto tries to provoke him by saying how low he's fallen that chasing Tenma is his reason for living, then goes even further and says his wife has remarried, and his grandson thinks that man is his grandfather. After showing irritation, Lunge demands to know who Roberto is and just where Johan is located. He eventually goes unconscious and Roberto walks out, only to die after his request to see the "Scenery for a Doomsday" is declined. When police and medics arrives, his wounds are treated. He tells the doctors that there is a man in town, Kenzo Tenma, who can save Johan's life, which leads to our horribly ironic ending. Later, he helps to testify Tenma's innocence. Several months after the incident, Lunge retires as an officer of the BKA and becomes a professor at a police academy, which he says gives him a lot more free time to spend with his daughter and grandson (though most contact is through via email). In his final scene, Lunge is seen with Fritz Verdemann and Jan Suk standing around Grimmer's grave, where he places a beer and comments on his curiosity about how much people really communicate throughout the duration of their lives, then adds he believes there is probably a lot Grimmer would have wanted to talk about over a nice, cold beer. Personality Lunge is very persistent, so much so that it occasionally gets him into trouble, even driving some of his suspects to suicide. His job is his life, and making a mistake in his eyes is a fate worse than death. Various fan speculations have proposed the idea that Lunge has the anime equivalency of Asperger's Syndrome. Abnormal Quirks and Analytical Methods Typing as a mnemonic device Lunge has a constant habit of tapping his fingers as though he's typing. He says that doing so is a way of inputting data into the hard drive in his brain much like one can type then save a document onto a computer. This method helps him to remember details of his cases and people he meets, even after many years has passed. His procedure is questioned by forensic psychologist Rudy Gillen, who suggests that in doing so, the information he enters into his brain becomes tainted with his own personal beliefs and opinions. "I am the killer" In order to predict a killer's motives, method of execution, and even next move, he enters a mode where he "becomes" the killer. He repeats to himself that he is x person and this is what he is doing. After getting into their mindset, he is able to reenact killer's behavior and fully understand why they carried out such actions and what they will do next. When he tries to do this with Johan Liebert, he comes to the conclusion that "I do not exist," because Johan's motives are completely impalpable to him, giving him, in Lunge's eyes, a fictitious or maybe even demonic air. Timeline Background Another Monster Other Runge/Lunge For questions regarding the inspector's name, please refer to the Wikipedia talk pages located here: Part I, Part II. The proper translation is "Runge," but since the Viz translation changed it to Lunge, leave his name as is. Quotes "Someone was here, and nobody can do anything without leaving some sort of trace of themselves. If there were such a person, he could hardly be considered human." "You're a detective, aren't you? Act like it. You have to calmly dissect and scrutinize everything. Dig up the truth as rationally as you can, even if you have to sacrifice you own happiness in the process" "I despise the wet weather. All it does is wash away the crime scene evidence when you need it the most." "The devil. There is not such thing in this world. That is why there are no criminals we cannot catch." "My trip into imagination, has finally become reality. With your sudden emergence, Doctor Tenma, my journey comes to an end, as the realities of the situation demand my attention." "Only one thing matters to people; it's all about how much we can communicate during our lives. Grimmer probably had lots of things he wanted to talk about, over a good beer." "If you don't want to be betrayed anymore, then start by doubting the person you want to doubt the least." Trivia Pictures Category:Characters